Clark wants Makarfi’s ten­ure ex­tended

A for­mer min­is­ter of in­for­ma­tion, Chief Ed­win Clark, yes­ter­day urged the Peo­ples Demo­cratic Party (PDP) stake­hold­ers to ex­tend the ten­ure of the Sen­a­tor Ahmed Makarfiled Na­tional Caretaker Com­mit­tee of the party by three months.

The party’s non-elec­tive con­ven­tion slated for Satur­day, is likely to ex­tend the ten­ure of the caretaker com­mit­tee.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day in Abuja, the ex-min­is­ter also said the 2019 pres­i­den­tial as­pi­rants from the 19 north­ern states should be sub­jected to one pri­mary election, while as­pi­rants for the party’s chair­man­ship from the 17 states of the south should also be sub­jected to one pri­mary.

Chief Clark, an el­der states­man, said a sit­u­a­tion where gov­er­nors, govern­ment func­tionar­ies and can­di­dates pro­vided lo­gis­tics and con­veyed del­e­gates to Abuja and other vot­ing lo­ca­tions should be avoided.

“The Makarfi caretaker com­mit­tee should be given at most an­other three months to al­low new ex­ec­u­tives and other or­gans of the party to be elected and let the party move on. Any time longer than three months will not be in the in­ter­est of the party.

“If pres­i­den­tial election is to take place in Fe­bru­ary, 2019, the min­i­mum time re­quired by an elected ex­ec­u­tive is more than 12 months to set­tle down.

“If there are in­ter­ested mem­bers of the caretaker com­mit­tee in elected po­si­tions such as pres­i­dent, sen­a­tor or gov­er­nor, such per­sons should not re­main in of­fice as mem­bers of the caretaker com­mit­tee for more than three months,” he said.